The present invention relates to a new variety of Senecio plant, which originated from the crossing of the Senecio cruentus cultivar ‘Extra Rose’ (unpatented) as the female parent and a variety of Senecio heritieri as the male parent.
There are many varieties in Senecio cultivated in the world. Many of these cultivated varieties have capitula of a single color of white, pink red, blue or violet, while others have marginal variegation with off color parts.
The female parent ‘Extra Rose’ used in the crossing which produced ‘Sunsenebare’ is a cultiver of Senecio cruentus. It is Early flowering variety having a dwarf and mounding shape with large leaves. It has small single capitula, the ray florets having a vivid purplish red color. The seed of ‘Extra Rose’ is commercially available.
The male parent used in the crossing which produced ‘Sunsenebare’ is a cultivar of Senecio heritieri, having a high and dome-shaped growth habit with abundant branching and small leaves. It has small single capitula, the ray florets having strong purple with vague white center coloration. Senecio heritieri was introduced into the United States from nurseries in England and, to Applicant's knowledge, has no variety name and is patented nor sold in the United States.
In January 1996, a crossing of ‘Extra Rose’ as the female parent and Senecio heritieri as the male parent was conducted at Hakushu-cho, Kitakoma-gun, Yamanashi-ken, Japan. The seedlings obtained from that crossing were grown in pots in glasshouses and evaluated from July 1996. One seedling was selected in view of its growth habit, flower color and flowering time in December 1996. That seedling was propagated by cutting and grown in pots starting from July 1999, at Hakushu-cho, Kitakoma-gun, Yamanashi-ken, Japan. The botanical characteristics of that plant were then examined, using similar varieties ‘Sunsenere’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 12,162) and ‘Midget’ (unpatented) for comparison. As a result, it was concluded that this Senecio plant is distinguishable from any other variety, whose existence is known to us, and is uniform and stable in its characteristics. The new variety of Senecio plant was named ‘Sunsenebare’.
In the following description, the color-coding is in accordance with The Horticultural Colour Chart of The Royal Horticultural Society, London, England (R.H.S.).